Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/265009
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2014 2014 7 News raising the money for Net TV and for being "a loyal collabo- rator… an extremely active and determined individual." "He has a brash character who has always moved quickly, sometimes too quickly for the people around him. He had a tendency to run off if left un- checked, and I found it neces- sary to rein him in on occasion. His response was generally positive. He often remarked to me, rather sarcastically I has- ten to add, that in retrospect he 'confirms' my decision on some issue or other was the right one. But he never hesi- tated to take a decision and I did not find him at all difficult to get along with. On the con- trary he was a huge asset." Fenech Adami's reserves his best of judgments for long- serving personal assistant Ri- chard Cachia Caruana: he was struck by his intelligence and analytical ability, "a stickler for facts", his distance from party politics making him aloof and a more reliable analyst, his loy- alty "beyond question" and the person "closer to me than any- body else in my political life". "Hard headed, we clashed regularly. On such occasions I often ignored him and he of- ten ignored me… I also pulled him several times over how he dealt with colleagues after I received complaints about what they perceived to be his arrogance." Fenech Adami says he tried to record his conversation in a per- sonal encounter with Joseph Fenech, aka Zeppi l-Hafi, when he learnt from police that he had been con- tracted to assassinate Cachia Carua- na in 1994. "This was not an attempt by me to take over the role of investi- gator. Zeppi l-Hafi had made it very clear he would only communicate with me, and both George [Grech, Commissioner of Police] and myself felt this was the only option if we were to stand a chance of solving the crime." "To this day I still believe Zeppi l- Hafi was telling the truth and I did no more than get him to tell the truth. If at any point a judge or the attorney general were of the opinion he was lying, they could have rein- stated all the charges against him because the pardon, granted condi- tionally in relation to three related cases, would have been null and void. The fact that this has not hap- pened shows that, although the jury chose not to believe him, there was no proof that he was telling anything but the truth. Quite the contrary, his statements had been cross-checked by the police and were corroborated by facts." Report by Daniel Mizzi and Matthew Vella 'I wasn't gunning for leader in 1996' – Louis Galea An early encounter with the influential Richard Cachia Caruana (centre) and with PN stalwart Louis Galea, who denies planning a leadership bid in 1996 Below: Austin Gatt – gruff but loyal